the art + life of sharon samples

At the end of August, I ordered a set of Copic markers from Japan. They were on back-order practically everywhere. They are scheduled to come in this week, but I’ve been eager to try them. So I went to Michael’s and bought 4 shades of warm gray markers to tide me over. Last night, I finally colored with them, deciding to use them on this drawing of Rey from Star Wars: The Force Awakens that I completed a few weeks ago.

There was a point in time where I thought I’d never really have a use for copic markers. However, after watching artists such as Mahmud Asrar work with them on their Periscope stream, I got to see how I could use the markers to enhance my own art. It’s much less messy than applying ink washes and the blending quality is amazing. I am really pleased with the result, the biggest achievement being that there is a background. :)

The idea for this piece was presented to me as a commission request. The patron wanted Gamora and Fitz “being friendly.” As you can see, this is a very broad prompt, and they were open to whatever I interpreted it to mean.

My first idea was to have Fitz showing Gamora some custom piece of tech. I spent about an hour drawing that, but I didn’t like where the drawing was headed. The composition was too staid, and I felt that the two characters weren’t interacting enough.

Plan B involved drawing Gamora wearing that white and black space suit that I had seen in several reference images that came up when I googled her. I really liked the detail in that outfit. And people are fans of Fitz in tactical gear, so I thought that would be fun to drawn and created an interesting dynamic to play with.

Now let’s rewind to a few months ago. I received a commission to draw Fitz & Simmons drinking tea, and the patron requested them posed in a very specific way and even provided an adequate reference photo. I don’t mind at all if the person has a very specific thing in mind. In many ways, that makes my job easier. Generally, if they’re commissioning me, they know what kind of work I produce and what kind of feeling I can get with the characters. So there is already a level of trust established, which helps me not be so hung up on whether I get certain things right.

Finally, we have my favorite Fitzsimmons art that I’ve drawn to date. Allison sent me a prompt asking for hipster!Fitzsimmons. For whatever reason, I was inspired, and after a brief search on Pinterest for a collection of references, something pretty adorable came out.

For those interested in the technical details, the pen drawings were drawn in blue pencil and then inked with Staedtler Pigment Liners. The last piece was drawn in a mechanical pencil and then scanned and colored using Photoshop CC.

I’m barely getting this posted on a Friday, but it makes 4 weeks in a row of fan art. So let’s celebrate the small successes. :)

Here we have Jane Lane and Daria Morgendorffer from the 90’s cartoon Daria. The challenge was to translate the very simple cartoon version of the characters into my more realistic style. I quite like how they came out. This would look so much better colored, which I am currently working. However, I did not get it finished in time for today’s post. So stay tuned for that.

I’m posting this later than planned, but it’s still Friday, so let’s focus on the positive, which is that I do, in fact, have new art to share. It feels good to be consistent. :)

This week we’re delving deep into the 1980s with a rendering of a memorable cartoon character from my childhood—Jem.

And yes, I am aware that a movie based on this character is coming out next month (I saw the trailer months ago. …omg, dude from the boy next door is in it, probabaly playing Jem’s love interest, and now i can’t unsee and it’s giving me very weird feelings because you look like you’re 28 and i hope i’m not supposed to believe you’re in any way a teenager, not with that permanent 5 o’clock shadow…but i’m glad they got a latino to play him…with a name like ‘rio’ how could you not?) I’m actually interested to see it. I mean, for a kids cartoon, it touched on some rather serious issues, such as self esteem, peer pressure, and dealing with the death of a parent. So if this movie takes on even a few of these themes successfully, it would be nice too see.

For inspiration, I looked to what current female pop stars are wearing. I considered Taylor Swift, and then Beyonce and Katy Perry. Finally, I had a “duh” moment, and I focused on Gwen Stefani for inspiration. She even had the period where she was rocking pink hair. After that, it was just left with finding the appropriate references for pose and outfit inspiration.

As usual, this was drawn in pencil and colored in Photoshop CC. I still have a Sailor Moon/Tuxedo Mask piece to color. Last night I also tackled Daria & Jane. So looked out for those drawing in the posts for the next 2 weeks.

I was a big fan of the X-Men cartoon series back in the day. So it was with warm nostalgia that I decided to draw this pair in my current style. After my first unsuccessful attempt at drawing 90s Gambit and Rogue, I chose to start fresh. It ended up being more of a mid-century style of the characters, but I like it a lot. Especially Remy’s face. And hair. Who am I kidding? I love everything about how he turned out. (I am notoriously and vocally up front about my deficiency in drawing the male form.) The drawing process was broadcast live via Periscope.

The initial sketch was done in blue pencil. Then I went straight to inks with Staedtler pens. Then I scanned the drawing and colored it using Photoshop. You can view more photos of my progress at my Instagram (sharon82).